Phillies Use Homeruns, Blanton to Beat Twins 6-1

Blanton finally shook off the rust and had himself a game tonight. The Phillies were looking to win their second game in a row for the first time in awhile and were looking to Blanton to lead them in the right direction. Well, it worked. The big, sometimes forgotten, righty pitched a complete game, struck out seven and allowed only one run. Wait, what?

Summertime! – Jimmy Rollins went 3 for 5 tonight and is now hitting .317 in the month of June. With his performance tonight, J-Roll is hitting .257 for the season and starting to produce from the top spot.

Did someone order Taters? –Jim Thome went deep again tonight, his third home run of the season and second in three games. This is great for Thome and the Phillies. Thome is finally getting comfortable at the plate and the Phillies are getting some pop from the clean up spot in the lineup. I just hope Charlie doesn’t lean on the old boy for too much as the year moves on. Two homers in three games will not be the standard for Thome.

Blantastic – Joe Blanton threw his second complete game of the season and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Blanton had given up at least five runs in his last five starts. Tonight, however, he threw first pitch strikes to 26 of the 34 batters he faced. That is 18% higher than his season average.

The Phillies beat the Twins 6-1 and will look to continue their success heading into the weekend after taking two of three from Minnesota.

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Win the next day and thats 4 in a row. And now we are talking about a streak.
Then we talk about winning the conference and a bowl bid.

Lets all get on board for the big win.

I’ve got to go, Rock. It’s all right. I’m not afraid. Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, ask them to go in there with all they’ve got and win just one for the Gipper. I don’t know where I’ll be then, Rock. But I’ll know about it, and I’ll be happy.

I posted the other day that I would see what you can get in return for Vic, Wigginton, Pierre, and Thome ….

I would think that a contending AL team- wouldn’t mind having a Power LH bat (but who is contending, and whose primary DH is Right handed that they would consider switching DH for pitching matchups, etc.) . . . you would have to think that Thome could get you at least a bullpen arm, or a young A+ or AA prospect, maybe not a “Top 100”, but somebody that could be in a year or two

I think Pierre has about that same value, a young propsect, or a bullpen arm… even a AAA bullpen arm.

Does Wigginton have any value, or does the fact that he can play 1b, 2b?, and 3b trump any crappy trade value he’d have?

I 99.995% think Victorino should be dealt at the trade deadline… and I think he should be able to land a legit prospect, plus some fringe ones

Blanton was so aggressive last night and threw great. Reminded me a lot of the 2 hour, complete game shutout against Atlanta earlier this season. When he attacks the zone, he does well. When he gets timid, he struggles. If Phils can take 2 of 3 of these next couple, they’ll be right near the top of the Wild Card race.

Ugh. Why would Joe Blanton have “rust” to shake off? Rust connotes a lack of use, yet Blanton hasn’t missed a start. Unless youre referring to the time missed last season, in which case I’m not sure how you would explain his good outings earlier this season. And who “sometimes forg[ets]” him?

Additionally, apparently you haven’t seen or heard the various reports that have said Thome is only going to PH or DH, so the concerns about “lean[ing] on the old boy too much” are not necessary. But I did appreciate the reminder that he won’t hit .667 homers per game, because I was just about to go look up whether anyone had ever managed to keep up such a pace, which would come to something like 107 HR in a season. Lot of value added here.

Blanton was rusty. He was rusty in the sense he hasn’t pitched a good game in quite a while. So he did shake off the stink or rust and threw a hell of a game. As for your Thome’s pace comment I have nothing for you. I can’t help it that you took that so literal you had to calculate his home runs. Manuel has a tendency to stick with a hot bat or a strong arm. That was my point. But, hey, thanks for reading!

@Dipsy – no
The Phils get the win, the most important item – other good things:

Rollins gets 3 hits
Rollins steals a base
2 hrs by the Phils
0 walks issued by the Phils
Phils were recipients of 4 passes
A complete game by the starter (OMG!)
(Joe Blanton not getting tatooed)
Scoring runs after the 7th inning (OK, not in a tie game situation nor coming from behind)
0 (read it again), 0 errors committed by the Phils (Wiggy looked pretty good at first)

OK, still nothing from Vic, not much from Pence nor Poly although he did break a schnide and knock in a run – Martinez was 0 fer

Who cares if the author used “rust” when talking about Blanton and his performance. Maybe that’s not the most applicable term for this situation but the point is that he pitched great and the Phillies got a nice win.

It’s a shame that Thome won’t be playing after this weekend. He could really give us a boost. Having him in there hitting like he is, changes the whole lineup and takes some of the pressure off the rest of the free swinging numb nuts. They have to figure out a way to get him more than the occasional pinch hit at bat. Even if they can start him at 1B and pull him after 2 or 3 at bats if they have a lead.

What did somebody say?? Maybe one of the broadcasters? Put Thome at first and tell him to basically not move too much. Only catch what comes his way…don’t stretch or jump or bend down. Sounds unrealistic but it would get his bat in the lineup. And if it’s for 2 or 3 ABs and then he’s lifted…

having thome batting cleanup is just a teaser for the capabilities of the batting order if and when the big piece gets back! along with utley it could get interesting. people keep saying that it’s hard to play over .600 ball the rest of the way but the last 2 yrs that’s just what they’ve done! it’s the pitching! we get good pitching and if they can stabilize the lineup ya never know! baseball has a way of the cream rising to the top. let me ask this. does anyone think the nats or the dodgers are going to play .600 + ball all year? the dodgers are over achieving in my eyes. and the nats? they have issues health wise and is their starting pitching going to dominate the rest of the year? time will tell but i wouldn’t bet on it! we know the phils starters can they’ve done it! see what one good pitched game with a couple of homers can do. it gets the juices and hope going. GO PHILS

Again, it’s great to be optimistic but I think expecting anything significant out of Howard and Utley this year is being unrealistic. I’m thinking next year for Howard (and even then I don’t expect him to be the same player) and very little if nothing from Utley ever. I’d love to eat my words though…

I watched that Arizona team too, Schilling and Johnson were good- started 5 of the 7 games, and only gave up 6 Earned Runs in those starts …..shows you the benefit of having a great starting rotation in the postseason, right?

Throw Roy Halladay into what?

The lineup with Mayberry at 1b, Mini Mart at 2b … isn’t all that great, but they’re hitting .269 as a team, which is actually the 3rd highest in baseball (behind only TEX and STL) their OBP% is .321% (14th in MLB, 7th in the NL))… the 283 runs they’ve scored so far is good for 11th in MLB, 5th in the NL)… they are SLG .405% which is 13th in MLB, 6th in NL

Yes, the Manager started Oswalt in game 4 last year, over Worley.

I wouldn’t say that last year’s staff was the “greatest staff ever”, though I’m sure they would thank you for the compliment… Not sure what specifics you want about why they lost, as there are numerous reasons that any team loses a series – and it’s well known that the longer the series (7 games vs 5 games), the more talented team generally wins out in the larger sample size (aka longer series) …. Sometimes in a 5 game series, the team that wins 3 games first, isn’t neccesarily the team that would’ve won 4 games first (as evidenced by the numerous teams in history to win a series after going down 3-2).

Man, usually “spark plugs” are young, energetic guys. But since interleague play began, our offensive spark plug has been without a doubt Jim Thome. I agree, it’d be awesome if we could somehow get him 4 at bats a game, but playing him at 1st just doesn’t seem like an option…but the longer he continues to put up these numbers, the harder it has to be for Manuel to not consider penciling him in.